Toni Erskine
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264379
- eISBN:
- 9780191734410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264379.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter discusses an outline of the shared ground between communitarian political thought and one branch of feminist ethics. These claim to reject abstraction and impartiality in ethical ...
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This chapter discusses an outline of the shared ground between communitarian political thought and one branch of feminist ethics. These claim to reject abstraction and impartiality in ethical reasoning. The central argument is that this antagonism yields very useful insights for normative IR theory.Less
This chapter discusses an outline of the shared ground between communitarian political thought and one branch of feminist ethics. These claim to reject abstraction and impartiality in ethical reasoning. The central argument is that this antagonism yields very useful insights for normative IR theory.
Toni Erskine
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264379
- eISBN:
- 9780191734410
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264379.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This book offers a challenging and original normative approach to some of the most pressing practical concerns in world politics —including the contested nature of the prohibitions against torture ...
More
This book offers a challenging and original normative approach to some of the most pressing practical concerns in world politics —including the contested nature of the prohibitions against torture and the targeting of civilians in the war on terror. The author’s vision of ‘embedded cosmopolitanism’ responds to the charge that conventional cosmopolitan arguments neglect the profound importance of community and culture, particularity and passion. Bringing together insights from communitarian and feminist political thought, the author defends the idea that community membership is morally constitutive—while arguing that the communities that define us are not necessarily territorially bounded and that a moral perspective situated in them need not be parochial. The book employs this framework to explore some of the difficult moral dilemmas thrown up by contemporary warfare. Can universal principles of restraint demanded by conventional laws of war be robustly defended from a position that also acknowledges the moral force of particular ties and loyalties? By highlighting the links that exist even between warring communities, the author offers new reasons for giving a positive response—reasons that reconcile claims to local attachments and global obligations. The book provides an account of where we stand in relation to ‘strangers’ and ‘enemies’ in a diverse and divided world, and provides a theoretical framework for addressing the relationship between our moral starting point and the scope of our duties to others.Less
This book offers a challenging and original normative approach to some of the most pressing practical concerns in world politics —including the contested nature of the prohibitions against torture and the targeting of civilians in the war on terror. The author’s vision of ‘embedded cosmopolitanism’ responds to the charge that conventional cosmopolitan arguments neglect the profound importance of community and culture, particularity and passion. Bringing together insights from communitarian and feminist political thought, the author defends the idea that community membership is morally constitutive—while arguing that the communities that define us are not necessarily territorially bounded and that a moral perspective situated in them need not be parochial. The book employs this framework to explore some of the difficult moral dilemmas thrown up by contemporary warfare. Can universal principles of restraint demanded by conventional laws of war be robustly defended from a position that also acknowledges the moral force of particular ties and loyalties? By highlighting the links that exist even between warring communities, the author offers new reasons for giving a positive response—reasons that reconcile claims to local attachments and global obligations. The book provides an account of where we stand in relation to ‘strangers’ and ‘enemies’ in a diverse and divided world, and provides a theoretical framework for addressing the relationship between our moral starting point and the scope of our duties to others.
Toni Erskine
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264379
- eISBN:
- 9780191734410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264379.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter discusses communitarian political thought and the work of Michael Walzer. It explores the normative significance of distinguishing the idea of the morally constitutive community from the ...
More
This chapter discusses communitarian political thought and the work of Michael Walzer. It explores the normative significance of distinguishing the idea of the morally constitutive community from the state. The chapter also attempts to draw attention to a much broader range of Walzer’s writings than is generally acknowledged within IR.Less
This chapter discusses communitarian political thought and the work of Michael Walzer. It explores the normative significance of distinguishing the idea of the morally constitutive community from the state. The chapter also attempts to draw attention to a much broader range of Walzer’s writings than is generally acknowledged within IR.